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Where are Dogster's topics?

Worried about him and questioning why his reports have disappeared. His reports have been the most interesting travel reports I have read. I miss reading his adventures, plus I am concerned wether or not he is over his illness.

O.K. - I'll try and explain. I may not have been the full quid when I deleted the post - but that's only part of it.

Health: It's only last night that I managed to eat properly [as opposed to sending revolting food back in revulsion] for the first time since 'The Event of The Roast Chicken'. Yes, I know I said I was recovered but I was merely surfacing, not swimming.

As you don't know, I was pesticided In The Worst City In India. That's a story I'll tell later, but it has rendered me highly sensitive to chemicals, disinfectants, petrol, pollution and pretty much everything that lives in the air in India. I know that the green gunge that lives in my lungs will go. Day by day it is.

Wow, dogster, that sounds really grim. I agree with Kathie - maybe time to bail for some medical care (although good care is available in India too - I seem to remember reading that medical "tourists" are going to Delhi for heart surgery) and I hope you're in a comfortable hotel now.

Confused, desperate fool that I was, in Mumbai, I went to the pharmacy. Those who've been to India will know that this is just a front for the distribution of illegal, legal drugs.

'I have a cough,' I said blithely, demonstrating my bestest, rankest coughlet for the troops.

'Take this,' they said gaily, handing me a sweet little bottle of more poison. So I did.

Well, the cough went away - replaced, as I realise now, by discreet lunacy, strange lurches from narcolepsy to wide-awake-olepsy, sudden rushes of emotion; temple tears to wild anger - mostly anger and a very odd fascination with the Temple Elephant in Madurai.

Dog is bouncing off invisible walls by now, convinced the world has gone mad, not him. I'm on my own, guzzling jungle boogie-ju-ju opium cough medicine, lost in deepest, dullest Tamil Nadu. The last thing I really remember are the big, pink, twin tunnels of seduction in the trunk of the Special Elephant of Madurai.

Dogster-it's never you. It's a vast conspiracy. Here in the states, it goes back and forth between a conservative conspiracy and a liberal conspiracy depending upon the moon. In India, there may be a different set of conspiracies, but they certainly exist. Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they are not out to get you. Just put one paw in front of the other. Never sit up and beg.

Relieved to hear that you have cheated death by roast chicken and have lived to post again.

My son had a terrible food-borne illness in central coastal Vietnam and was horrifyingly sick so I can imagine the ordeal you have endured both in becoming ill, and then perhaps suffering through some iatrogenic "help" (not to mention the toxic effects of fumigation).

heh, fantastic reply Gpanda. My great problem is that I always bite first, not beg.

Now, you'd think Blind Freddy and his three-legged dog would have realised what was going on - this is one of the perils of solo-travels. When you're lost - you're really, really LOST.

The worst thing here is that, by deleting one of Marija's posts in a fit of Google Search conspiracy paranoia, I mortally offended her. I was kinda surprised at the extremity of her reaction, [let's not worry about what it was], but there are times I can't be accountable to you all - nor do I choose to disclose anything until I'm ready.

She's been completely, 1000% supportive and was utterly unexpected collateral damage. I feel sad about that, but I'll have to cop it, I guess.

Yup, marya_, I'm improving by the minute. You only know about this because it's nearly over.

So, LA - I see non-sensical things are finally making sense. When I get home - soon - I'll cut these ramblings [well, the properly written version] and the Tamil Nadu gibberish together. I think you'd understand how that might read.

Still, the cough, but that's going day by day. I just need fresh, fresh air. Wow, that's hard to find in India when you need it.

In these days of swine flu, however, international travel and the prospect of being bunged into isolation on arrival in BKK seem like a worse alternative than staying here and doing nothing till everything is over. I only made it to Chennai this afternoon.

Dogster, I'm sooo glad you're better, though some of the paranoia seems to linger on... Mortally offended?! Collateral damage?! I was terrified that you were going off the deep end and I certainly didn't want to fuel your anger. To make sure my post was removed, and that I hadn't written anything earlier that you might now find troublesome, ( I did, after all, suggest that you had signed on as an Indian hotel inspector), I asked the editors to get rid of all my posts in that thread. I'm touched that you even noticed or cared--thank you. In the future let’s stay away from discussions of Indian prison locations...

Enough about the past. I'm looking forward to a healthy Dogster sharing his inimitable adventures with us. Take care of yourself!

Yeah, that H1N1 screening at airports is scary Dogster. I came into Toronto from Athens a few months ago burning with fever, red-eyed, haggard. The humorless (aren't they all?) border guard asked if we had any flu symptoms, and I had to summon up my very best actress chops ("Why no officer, why do you ask?")to avoid the plague quarantine cell("Nooooo, not Toronto!")

And you, maybe you've come down with the and flu and salmonella poisoning, a sort of Piggy/Chicken one-two punch.
I look forward to hearing the whole sordid story one day.

Glad you're improving -- and I can sympathize! Delhi "air" left me hacking and coughing most of our first night. We went sightseeing the next day, me with about 2 hours sleep. Not good. Dextromethorphan is a great cough suppressant, but also a psychodelic, strange and wonderful trips. Keep on getting better!